The History of MDMA

MDMA's history is a mosaic of parallel developments across research, politics, recreational use, and medicine, not a simple linear story. The book traces MDMA from its early pharmaceutical origins after 1900, through its studied military potential and early psychotherapeutic use, to its spread as a recreational drug in Europe and the United States. Later chapters address debates over its toxicity, its global distribution as a dance drug since the 1990s, and recent research into its therapeutic potentials. The account integrates multiple narratives and levels of interaction to make this complex history more intelligible.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This book is intended to provide an overview of the complex and dispersed history of MDMA, in the hope of making it more intelligible. In respect of the period up until the late 1980s, the book focuses on what was happening in Europe and the United States as other countries were not significant in this timeframe. This book does not describe the history of an illegal drug only as it is perceived in the public mind, but also in terms of the research into it, the political responses to it, its spread, and its medical use. It follows the early pharmaceutical history of MDMA shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, its researched military potential, and its early use in psychotherapy, followed by its distribution as a recreational drug and its spread throughout Europe and the United States and other parts of the world. Later chapters focus on the debate about its potential toxicity, its worldwide distribution as a dance drug since the 1990s, and the most recent research on MDMA and its therapeutic potentials. The history of MDMA is characterized by a range of parallel developments occurring at different levels and their many interactions. It is more of a mosaic than a linear story and cannot be described in terms of a simple narrative. This book tries to bring these multiple narratives and levels of its history and their complex interactions together in order to produce a coherent mosaic